if i try again with safe search on and more dicks pop up i will feel really stupid

We went from DC to grammar to nitpicking to dicks very quickly GUISE!

Intentional misspelling of "guys"

Now you're picking on yourself.

Which is fun.

And I'm the ultra-picker.

Hah

Picking on everyone not to pick on anyone.

prntscr.com/ennj9r

ur full of shit Mitch!

Dogfart is only porn

not beetles

Porn will give your PC a virus so be aware.

You will see ads everywhere and pop ups. Been there. Not not me, did I say that out loud?

it is a screenshot. showing that a safe search of google for dogfart reveals ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

@anang You're finding out about the darker secrets of this chatroom

I'm detecting a dramatic change of language style here.

@Færd Dogfart style?

@Færd it will take weeks to undo the damage to my writing style

@M.A.R. yes. Dogfart tyle.

@anang Actually after looking through the many hits, I'm beginning to realize that 'off of' may be more formal than dropping the 'of'.

but unfortunately it's very difficult to do a ... hmmm

@Mitch how about the NYT though? I am going to check.

Why is NYT so important?

@anang What's "Dogfart style". I have only heard of "Doggy style".

Because it's available as a corpus?

Ok. This chat is getting rated. I will be back later I guess.

@Færd NYT is the cream of the crop

Hmm. Says who?

@englishstudent EVACUATE EVACUATE

Yes. I know. Hah.

Says the same folks working in Washington D.C.

Your could argue more objectively, I guess.

What do you mean?

Just because you want to appeal to something doesn't make them authorities on language.

At least not for me, who don't know them.

@anang (you're not wrong to pick a respected style and emulate it. we're just being skeptical about some very specific things)

@anang but that's fairly vague

do you men the concrete production companies in DC? I'm not sure they're the best ones to emulate.

@Færd @Mitch I get that. I really appreciate the skepticism. I am in the same boat as you guys when it comes to feelings towards D.C. standards.

I don't know of any DC standards.

But if I am going to get to my dreams I have to play by their rules, and their rules demand 0 time wasting for the reader.

@Færd Right. I think that'st the point @anang. What DC standard are you referring to?

After searching through 10 pages of NYT articles I haven't found a single instance of "off of" when using their search engine.

@Mitch oh I don't mean standard as in an actual manual. I just mean something more like... culture

I get that. Doesn't contradict my previous statement though. When you're arguing with a random person don't assume or expect that they should be on the same page as you. Use real evidence.

Washington DC writing culture

Is that a thing?

Sadly yes. they are busy people.

@anang use coca

@anang There's a DC culture?

SUre if you're living there, but it has little to do with writing.

Coca is short for cocaine, BTW.

What DC writing culture are you referring to? What publications?

@Mitch NYT follows this writing culture

@anang ???

Conciseness is king. "Off of" is not found on the NYT as far as I can tell

I think it might be the other way round

@anang maybe you didn't look hard enough.

I'll keep looking

The obvious counterexamples are the quotations.

how are you going to compare 'off of' with 'off' because most of the time 'off' stands alone as a preposition.

@Mitch exactly. if there are no instances of "off of" then that is a testament to NYT conciseness

@Mitch "coca cola". I know you mean Corpus though.

I am using the NYT search engine. I don't know how to use coca. is is a little confusing.

> People used to ask if it was based off of the Disney princess, Sleeping Beauty,

> So I'm not going to get to retire off of this.

@anang concision maybe, or maybe that phrasal verbs are forbidden there (I don't know, I'm not thinking)

> That's the sound of millions of users moving their content off of GoDaddy servers.

@anang what's the link for nyt search?

> a lot of golden little crumbs have fallen off of SAC,

Etc. All from NYT.

@Mitch query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/…

@anang Which is true but remember that sometimes wordy things look nice and polite. Like in conversations if someone is terse then it doesn't look very charming.

@Færd nice

It depends though.

@englishstudent well that says a lot about people in DC doesn't it ;)

@Mitch I got them Off of Coca.

@anang :)

to me, they sound overly formal and I would remove the 'of'. But maybe NYT tends to be more formal.

There's a famous off of thread on the main site.

@Færd Geroff!

(that's a Harry Potterism for me)

@anang Where are you from by the way? I hope it is not a secret.

I read that post earlier. Good post.

@Færd lol

@Færd in my defense if i ever get the internship to DC I will become a hobo living off the streets. Can't afford that place. I'll gladly do it though.

What are you going to be doing there anyway?

Continuing your education in philosophy?

getting my foot in. It will be prestigious enough to land me in the ivy league of my choice for law school.

@anang they have good public trans. so consider not living in Dupont Circle or Georgetown.

@anang By just living there? I don't think that's how it works.

Ivy league = career in politics = my dream

Oh. OHH.

@Mitch The internship is what matters

are you in the states already?

California

@anang so you want an internship in DC, presumably in some quasi- or entirely-political organization, and then you want to go to an Ivy league school afterwards and then ... further political stuff?

@Mitch yes! A bi-partisan government watchdog group in DC

That's a good plan.

@englishstudent if I am good enough

I'd say forget about that.You can already crack your way through show biz.

It's funny because after reading the 'off of' question, I was thinking that 'off of' may be an AmE thing.

maybe not

@anang Nice. Then you can find native speakers in real life too to proofread things I guess.

There are ~250 hits for off of in BNC. Multiplied by five, exceeds COCA's ~750 hits.

I am not good enough right now. Not by a long shot. I must improve my writing skills. As an analyst however I am amazing. The undergrad program from UCLA for philosophy is amongst the very best. I can analyze things but not write. No writing skills = useless

@anang so have concerns about writing well is a good thing. but the usual course of things is to do well in high school, go to a good school (Ivy League is great but not necessary, there's others that are great, and regular good state schools will also be sufficient). and then during school or immediately afterwards do an internship or be a page or something like that.

@englishstudent right now I can't find anyone to analyze my work though. Believe me I am a terrible writer. being a philosophy major will do that to you. I am not as smart as you might think I am.

@anang oh...so you're an undergrad now? and you want Ivy League for grad school?

@anang Ah I see. Well we are here if you need any help.

Wow, I just saw on the (biased) local news that the use of Uranium by Saudi Arabian military has caused some structural birth defects. If that's true, it's horrible news. O.O

yeah. for real, don't use things like 'if you will'. empty filler

@Mitch I was an undergrad. I graduated already.

not in writing

... if you will.

You guys think you can analyze my page of writing for conciseness and clarity? It is my first attempt at "good" writing.

@anang there are good government policy schools all over that are not Ivy League.

(i.e. don't limit yourself unnecessarily)

I'm going to eat dinner at 1 a.m., if you will

How about a community college?

Ok. Never mind. How about Harvard Uni?

If you will? If I will stay here any longer I'll miss dinner.

@Mitch That is true. But the congresspeople are ivy leagues. Congress is my goal.

@anang If I thought myself good enough I'd probably do that for you, but sorry.

I gotta get off of this chatroom soon

"off of" wins. Yay!

That is cool guys! thanks for all the help!

@anang some are, aome aren't.

this ain't France, where everyone in government went to Sciences Po

@Mitch Not before me.

@Mitch kicks Mitch out Just kidding, you know we love you right @Mitch?

or the American Civil War where all the generals on both sides went to West Point

@Mitch that does make me feel a lot better

I have heard about West Point.

@englishstudent If you can use more than four prepositions in a row grammatically, that will show me how you feel.

@Mitch But I have been told by many people I am not a good writer. I must improve either way.

@Mitch haha

@anang good to practice then

and dinner calls. later

Bye.

bye!

Non appetit. Oh... Bon is it?

Yeah that.

"Mark was eating an apple" is an active sentence

"The apple was eaten" is a passive sentence

"The apple was eaten by Mark" is also a passive sentence

Am I correct?

@Mitch Sure! Here you go, fifteen prepositions in a row: What did you bring me the magazine I didn’t want to be read to out of about “‘Over Under Sideways Down’ up from Down Under” up around for?